My Flyer Family: Let her eat cake

Editor’s Note: This personal essay is the first in a series of essays the University of Dayton Magazine is presenting online called My Flyer Family.

I first set foot on the University of Dayton campus when I was 11 years old. My cousin Dana Eckert Brodbeck was marrying UD alumnus Bob Brodbeck ’10 in the UD chapel. I don't remember much about my first time on campus — I just wanted to get to the reception for the cake. 

Years later, when I was applying for colleges, I toured UD and went beyond the chapel for the first time. As I walked along the brick paths, I knew this was where I was going to spend the next chapter of my life. I was home. 

Besides my own home, there was really only one other place I recall feeling this way — my grandparents’ house. Even empty, the house has an atmosphere that carries the presence of all my family members and the memories we have made. I have never once felt more at peace than when I walk into my grandma and grandpa’s house. 

As I walked around on my campus tour, I was shocked to have that same feeling. Although campus is on the opposite end of the state from my grandparents’ Cleveland home, I felt like they were right there with me with their love and warmth. 

I couldn't place it at the time, but I now realize why — UD is in my blood. 

“I couldn’t place it at the time, but I now realize why — UD is in my blood.”

My grandparents, Virginia “Ginny” Eckert Bruns ’68 and Kenneth “Ken” Bruns ’68, met and dated when they attended school here. Ginny was a commuter and would go to the old Hangar for coffee before class. They shared some mutual friends, and Ken would be there more and more often. He finally asked Ginny to the military ball. 

After that, she said, “I couldn't get rid of him.” They have been married for 52 years (and counting). Though decades have passed, a piece of each of them is still here at school with me.  

I come from a long line of UD alumni totaling more than 40 people. My grandma’s side of the family, specifically, is studded with alumni. After her family left Poland in the early 1920s, they settled in Dayton for multiple generations. Although the family line grew and spread, the UD tradition held strong. 

As the oldest of my grandparents’ 10 grandchildren, I was the first of this generation to begin my college journey. The more I learned about UD, the more excited I became, and setting foot on campus sealed the deal. At that moment I knew I was going to continue the family tradition. 

Now, as I walk on campus and attend classes, I cannot help but think of my family’s Flyer lineage.

As I enter the library I think of my grandmother’s cousin, Brother Ray Nartker, S.M. ’44, a distinguished staff member who ran the library for more than 22 years and helped bring it into the modern era.

As I pass the ROTC building, I think of my grandpa training there to begin his military career, which included paratrooper and ranger training. He volunteered to be a pathfinder in Vietnam, but he was rerouted because of his leadership experience as a lieutenant after the casualties at Hamburger Hill. He returned home a captain.

Walking along the brick path by the chapel, I see my grandmother heading to Holy Angels Church School in her ’60s-style beehive and pastel dress, gathering experience for her 25-year career as a kindergarten teacher.

I think of my grandma’s sister, Elizabeth Eckert Kohut ’67, who was the only UD student chosen to go with a few University of Miami students to teach in the Canary Islands her senior year. 

When I walk down Lowes Street, I can imagine my second-cousin David Kohut ’98 getting into mischief with his friends before earning his law degree in 2005 from UD and becoming an attorney for the U.S. Patent Office, and later a judge.

And each time I attended a basketball game this year at UD Arena, I remembered how my grandma told me about Tom Nartker ’58, another relative, who played basketball for the Flyers. Nicknamed “The Moose,” he played only one year but, as the family story is recounted, finished with a field goal record of 100%.

“UD is my home.”

There is nowhere I go on campus that I am not reminded of my illustrious family members who came before. UD is my home. I am so incredibly proud to be continuing in my grandparent’s footsteps, because I try every day to be like them: kind, loving, generous and full of faith. I know these traits that make them so special were fostered here at UD and will hopefully rub off on me as well. It is a blessing to be a part of this UD legacy, and I hope to pass down this tradition to future generations as my family has to me.

Photographs provided by Taryn Mitchell '25.